Oceanaleen Ground Teams                                 

Oceanaleen Ground Teams will be the first people entering Oceanaleen service trained with material supplied by the Saharro program. 

Their service entry will preclude the Bordiva teams into operation by as much as a year. They will form a high skilled task force, performing public speaking roles, while actively cleaning the community by picking up litter. They will network with other organisations and help them to establish their own rubbish collecting programmes.

Ground Teams were devised when the realisation showed it would be far more practical, economical and effective in a lot of situations to use a car with support teams without the expense of a boat. Most Ground Teams are likely to be supplied with Kayaks and trained in all aspects of how to use them.

Oceanaleen will assemble teams who will need less training than Bordiva crews and be therefore much faster to deploy. Ground Teams will operate in most of the roles of the Bordiva crews, such as the Saharro schools program, where team members visit a school and give talks about Oceans and rubbish. Most vehicles will be operated by one person who will be given a precinct: a set area for an Oceanaleen Bordiva crew or Ground Team.

Studies show that if an untidy area is cleaned up properly, it generally stays quite tidy for months afterwards. In all except high volume situations a basic, quick clean-up will restore the area. This means areas of operation of Oceanaleen ground team members can expand as the litter clears. They can move from town to town giving talks on Saharro related information, clean up the town and move to another area. The same town can be tidied on a return visit a month later.

This can effect establish a volunteer team at each town to look after their town and be supervised – and as such be accountable – for their town. The area of operation of the Oceanaleen ground teams, working in conjunction with Bordiva coastal teams could extend into entire countries. It would not take long to visit every town in the United States for example with 50 vehicles and team members visiting three per week.

Oceanaleen Ground Teams will work in conjunction with local environmental organisations through internet networking – to get the town out to help clean up their village. This is hoped to have some sort of sausage sizzle type day where people just hand out and have fun. Contingency plans will be always made for days with bad weather.

The Ground Team program will investigate using either 2-3 year old vehicles or lease cars to save money. Leasing rather than buying can save substantial money over the longer term. The problem with second hand cars is only the types which use fuel depreciate with any real savings. Smaller, economical cars ideal for Oceanaleen ground teams retain their value, negating the point. Ground teams in future will use big cars, which are cheaper and more comfortable over long distances, when Bordiva crews are operational and the teams move inland.

If money is saved then more teams are affordable. While the proportion is small, even a few more staff can make a substantial difference to the amount of rubbish in a location. One person could cover a region or, feasibly, cover entire States with smaller populations. Remember these workers go to various towns and deal with the local environmentalists, training and supporting them to clean their own towns up, leading by example on visits.

What Oceanaleen does is encourage members of the community to get out and clean up their neighbourhood. People are shy and reluctant to get out at times and the ground teams will often provide the push needed to get things moving and make a difference.

Kayaks

Investigations are underway to use Kayaks for some rubbish collection duties. Much of the rubbish in urban areas in water systems is much better suited to being extracted by a small, manoeuvrable craft; smaller is better.

The best type in this situation is a kayak, which also has a low environmental impact when compared to a boat. Boats can be quite noisy, disturbing eco-systems such as nesting birds, as well as using fuel and thereby carbon. Modern Kayaks have excellent electric engines helping crews to cover more area with less effort. With situations sometimes requiring high manoeuvrability, such as around jettties and moorings Kayaks are ideal. Kayaks also are very quiet, so will not be disruptive to the local wildlife in areas such as Mangrove growths areas.

Two person efforts could use the electric engine to send one person up a river system, against the current, while the other person moves downstream on the other side back to the vehicle.

The roles Kayaks can play could be enormous. Kayaks can be used in coastal areas where only small swells exist. The vessel is much better suited to most river systems. Kayaks are also a lot cheaper to buy and have very little maintenance costs. Oceanaleen Ground Teams could use these craft prior to the advent of the Bordiva boats.